Saturday, February 23

Alexandra Jaye Johnson offers a timely reminder about life! Love the clarity and simplicity of this message - and this way of thinking: it's a great antidote to stress :) Like Alex says:"Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment."
~ Eckhart Tolle

Friday, February 22

This is fascinating and worth a look, sleep being a key component of a healthy lifestyle and naturally a key component of the Paleo lifestyle. And sleep having been entirely different in the days pre-dating the light bulb and access to "open all hours" technology.

Recently I have found myself wanting to sleep early and waking between 12.30 and 2 pm at night before going back to sleep, later. I was unsettled by this, mostly, on reflection because we are told that good sleep is solid, uninterrupted sleep and "best" for eight hours and over. That thought set up a judgment in me that I would suffer the next day due to a "sleepless" night. In fact and whilst wrestling with that thought, it became apparent that it was that thought that was causing me the stress not the pattern of sleep cycle that I was experiencing. It was a problem of perception!

This TED talk considers this and reminds us of numerous records through time of biphasic sleep patterns (sleep broken in two four hour segments) with the first beginning about two hours after night fall. Separating the first sleep from the second sleep was a period of wakefulness for prayer, meditation or deep connection with a partner, the light being still dark outside and the connection pretty intense.

I found reference to this period of wakefulness shared by A. Roger Ekirch (a sleep historian) who recounts the tale of Robert Louis Stevenson and his biphasic sleep experience trekking through the French Alps in 1878. Falling asleep shortly after sunset

"He awoke around midnight, smoked a cigarette, and, only after enjoying a hours contemplation, fell back asleep. That hour, that "one stirring hour" moved him; Stevenson had never before experienced a "more perfect hour". He had awoken not because of an interloper, a night terror or any other external actor but because of what he later described as a wakeful influence that goes abroad over the sleeping hemisphere and is unknown to those who dwell in houses"

So I am going with it. Learning to drop the judgment that comes with thought and embrace this period of wakefulness and the sometimes unexpected pleasures that comes with it ;)

Thursday, February 21

Half term heaven for the kids and half term heaven for me, returning home from work yesterday to find a new Paleo snack on the table courtesy of the Oliver junior team. Well, a bit of self interest never hurt anyone and proof positive that necessity is truly the mother of invention when it comes to paleo snacks for these children left to their own devices in a biscuit free environment! It transpires that as well as adding our recipe collection to the Pinterest board, Poppy had taken a good look round at other paleo offerings and had been truly inspired. So read on and enjoy:

Ingredients

Apples
Cinnamon

Method

Pre- heat oven to 180C

Thinly slice the apples using a mandolin slicer

Place the delicate slices on to a baking tray lined with parchment paper

Tuesday, February 19

This short film explores the profound subtlety hidden in the fight for control of our waistlines. And our lives. This film captures the unmet need in many of us, women in particular for whom the fight for weight loss is not about weight but about the unmet hunger to live a bigger life....

Monday, February 18

Ever catch yourself standing in front of
the fridge, door open and no idea why?
Habit, that’s all and it’s time to tackle that and get creative in the kitchen.
Reports from the front line confirm that the more we become aware of the habit
of snacking, the easier it is to make a different choice. In these transition days when we often work
the brain too hard, we could use a technique to assist.

So here are the top ten paleo snacks from Paleo Works. Choose carefully and soon
the habit to snack will pass out of the food day.

We never used to snack by the way, it was an
invention of the food industry: a finger of fudge, milky way – the snack you
can eat between meals and won’t fill you up, maltesers, the lighter snack and
we fell for it, hook line and sinker. Check
out this fantastic documentary by Jacques Peretti and listen, don’t get fat, get even and then...fight back!

Scooby Snacks for the Discerning Eater!

Coffee with cream

Berries with cream

Avocado slices with bacon bits

Macadamia nuts

Hard boiled eggs

Devilled eggs

Eggs mashed with butter

Half a pear with some strong cheese

Kale Chips

Half an apple with some almond butter

PS. Whatever else you are looking for it's not in the fridge.

PPS. Fat loss is a hormonal process not a calories process. High insulin levels from carbohydrate consumption fuels fat!

PPPS. Sugar addiction (carbohydrates) comes largely down to mood. We relapse only when we feel the need for a chemical pick me-up. Coaching to master our eating habits can be a life-saver... Call us now and take advantage of a FREE discovery session. We'll explore eating habits together. take stock of your diet history and give you an idea of how we can partner together to develop an eating philosophy for life.

Kate Oliver spent years struggling with her weight and ineffective weight loss solutions – until she discovered a remarkable solution (backed by 2,000,000 years of evolution and experience) that helped her permanently lose 60lbs in eight months with no pills, calorie counting, potions, exercise or weight loss surgery. Three years later, her weight remains stable - now that's worth celebrating!

Friday, February 15

Old habits die hard and that includes the habit of standing and staring in front of an open fridge! Not sure ever what we are looking for but often the answer does not seem to be inside. Still here's something that is. Roasted pepper slices in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Stick your finger in the pot and enjoy!

Slice up the bell peppers, toss with salt and pepper, extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar to taste

Keep in the fridge for about a week - great to add flavour to just about anything you are cooking great to snack on when you are standing staring into the fridge.

Kate Oliver spent years struggling with her
weight and ineffective weight loss solutions – until she discovered a remarkable
evolution solution that helped her permanently lose 60lbs in eight months with
no pills, potions, calorie counting, exercise or weight loss surgery. For your free discovery session to find out how the Paleo path can help you conquer your food habits e-mail: kate@paleoworks.co.uk. Talk soon.

Thursday, February 14

Working daily with others to facilitate the transition to a paleo lifestyle always brings with it fantastic insights and reminders and for that I am truly grateful. And yesterday was no exception. During the afternoon, as we started to build on the concept of creating an eating philosophy, a guide for life; so it became obvious all over again that the wonderful key to eating paleo is simplicity. How complex life is. How so many of us have brought that complexity into the food we eat and how letting go frees up the taste buds in glorious, unexpected ways.

Bringing the food back down to simple single ingredient food. Breakfast this Valentine's morning becomes bacon, liver, avocado and eggs (over easy) and fried in bacon fat. Delicious. Satisfying. Simple. Try it and see.

Wednesday, February 13

Supper was based around aslow cooked briskettonight. We added some roasted butter nut squash to the mix about an hour before serving and ate it with roast sweet potatoes and butter for the children and green cabbage leaves again with butter and fresh cracked black pepper.

Tuesday, February 12

This was a simple clean meal with cooked chicken, boiled eggs and salad. We added some dressing, a little chilli, olive oil and balsamic vinegar; tossed the salad and served. It was enough and we ate well and simply last night. Thanks Paleo

Monday, February 11

So it came round to Friday and I felt rebellious. Full-time working mums can see where this is going - and there it was, NO TEA. Walking in through the door after work, a little late may be but truthfully not on purpose, four hungry mouths open and looking at me. What's a girl to do? Order out? Run to MacDonalds? Run away?

In truth, I did none of the above. Rustling in the back of the freezer I located a pack of sorry looking frozen pollocks - which seemed kind of appropriate! Using the baked cod recipe from during the week I rallied the troops and we created "Cheesy Fish". OK the title is not great. Don't dwell on it. You will see for the purposes of this post we have chosen to call this dish "Plan B."

The dish contained the fish, olives, chorizo (bits found in tray in fridge), onion and dried tomatoes each offering triumphantly presented by the kids charged with exploring the back of the fridge, and was served topped with greek yoghurt and cheese. And it worked! Tasty, hot, delicious and filling (served with dark green leafy vegetables). Which goes to prove two things a) it can be done, even after a less than promising start b) always keep frozen fish in the freezer.

Take from this what you will. Me, I love the fact that this paleo way of eating fits in with us, all of us. Family means no-one gets left behind or forgotten. This time, we are all in this together. (Cue song).

Friday, February 8

Triggers are everywhere. We can’t avoid them. The key is to discern a method of dealing
with the feelings that wash over when the trigger kicks in. Ice-cream, cheese, chocolate, sponge cake, Belgian
buns for some of us these trigger indescribable feelings of comfort and love. But that is not about the food. It‘s never about the food. Part of the journey is learning why we
eat. And emotions don’t come into
it. They are filed under another place.

Be very clear deep inside why we eat: for
energy and for building blocks for maintenance and repair. Anything else isn’t eating. Anything else is a poor substitute for deeper
connection and self- love. Learn not to
be afraid. Learn to voice the intention
behind an action.

So in that moment the trigger bites: focus
on forming a single word that captures the essence of your intention: the bigger picture; hold on and then let
go. And trust.

And keep breathing. Things have a way of working themselves out in the end. Promise.

Almost the end of my week-long experiment with slow cooker meals. It works, I think, front loading my day with meals ready for when we walk in from work, school ,college, volunteering, shopping, driving. This last dish was a chicken casserole with sausage (as that is what was left over in the fridge) and a selection of vegetables and some tinned tomatoes. Tasty and with enough sauce leftover to make a nourishing "soup" for both adults to eat at some point during tomorrow, all happy.

Thursday, February 7

"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. And those who don't believe in magic will never find it." Roald Dahl

Wednesday, February 6

This slow cooker meal is not for the faint hearted as the spectacular taste could blow your socks off.

Warnings aside, it took a good ten minutes to prepare in the kitchen before setting off in the slow cooker (the meat not me).

Yesterday however, I had awarded myself a day off and so the ten minutes seemed a small price to pay in the sure and certain knowledge that when the kids and Michael opened the front door after a long day at work, the smell of slightly spiced warm beef floating around the corner would be reward in itself and would help to convince all that I had been hard at it all day as opposed to watching Jeremy Kyle with my feet up, wrapped in a blanket. Shhh...don't tell: the occasional day off is a very necessary part of life.Indeed it's in the contract!

5. Heat oil and lightly brown each side of the spiced up roast in the frying pan turning over and over til sealed

6. Place the meat on top of the onions

7. Add the water and slosh of wine into pan to de-glaze to include scraping all the lovely sticky bits in the bottom of the pan. Throw over the meat and onions.

8. Pour the tomato and vinegar mixture over the top.

9. Cook on low for as long as necessary

Served this with jacket potatoes for the boys, jacket sweet potatoes for the girls and a serving of butter touched asparagus (yes reduced aisle in Tescos again - that's me in the rain coat, well if they will give it away..)

When food is life, choose food that will enhance life. If we eat processed food, food tainted by industry, food so far away from its natural state we can no longer tell what it is, we are losing life essence. Life essence is when we climb a tree, pull an apple off a branch that has been ripened by the sun and take a big bite of it. That is nourishment.

Pulled it off with grace and style last night and my star is very definitely in the ascendant! Why? Ribs, that's why and this has to be the easiest meal ever made. Perhaps the best thing was the cost. The price of the meat (two packs of spare ribs - the plateful shown) was £4.25 (thank you Tesco's reduced aisle) and all of us late in after work, school, volunteer jobs and college. The sauce was cooked up in 20 mins from store cupboard staples and we served it with salsa and a few sweet potato crisps (not Walkers but not far off)! The beef stock came from the ribs in the slow cooker which produced exactly the right amount even though no liquid was added to the recipe. Alchemy at work ;)

Monday, February 4

We eat for energy. Some of us say we eat for “fun” but that is
not an essential reason in fact on closer examination, it’s not even a reason and for some of us not even fun anymore. The other scientific reason we eat is to replace tissue and
gather up building blocks for repair and maintenance of our bodies.

Building blocks and fuel. We need both.
We can’t have one without the other as we need fuel for energy to gather
up the blocks and the energy to fuel the bio-chemical reactions to keep up the repair.

Nowhere does it state we eat to cheer
us up, to comfort us or because we deserve it.
Really, eating does not have a role to play here.

And the building blocks we need for
maintenance and repair are protein and fatty acids. Not carbohydrates. In fact we can get all the carbohydrates we
require from protein and fat. There is
zero requirement for carbohydrate in our diet.
And yes you did read that correct.
Check out this great article by Ron Rosedale MD

There are two kinds of fuel our bodies can
process: sugar and fat. The body stores
excess energy as fat. That is
evolution. That is the body’s desired
fuel that will sustain us and allow us to live through times of lack and
scarcity. The body stores only a little
bit of sugar. That is for turbo-charging
purposes only and is not the body’s desired fuel choice. Our bodies function at optimal levels burning fat, not sugar.

In fact if we had to rely on our sugar stores for energy,
we would be dead by the end of the day!

The brain does require glucose (blood sugar) to function but can receive this by burning by products of fat-metabolism
called ketones. In times of fasting,
this is what happens. Try it. It keeps us lean and mean. We love the feeling of clarity and focus ketosis
brings and always advocate it as an efficient means of weight loss when we need to get
back on track.

Glucose was meant to be fuel used in life
or death situations: dodging fire, racing a sabre-toothed tiger or wrestling a woolly
mammoth. It is turbo charged rocket fuel and we dig into our glycogen stores
(sugar stores) and raid this rocket fuel when the situation calls for it. And to be frank, these days , that's not often is it? We have different stresses and that's a whole other post.

What to take away from this article? To function strong and well we need to be burning
fat for energy and repair. To be slim, strong and vital we
need to be burning fat. What gets in the
way of burning fat? Sugar consumption
from carbohydrates! What does the modern
western diet consist of? Carbohydrates (sugar)! Get out of the carbohydrate cycle and we are more than half way home. Get our bodies into effective fat burning machines, now we're talking action and results and that's when Paleo Works!

Kate Oliver spent years struggling with her
weight and ineffective weight loss solutions – until she discovered a remarkable solution (backed by 2,000,000 years of evolution and experience) that helped her permanently lose 60lbs in eight months with
no pills, calorie counting, potions, exercise or weight loss surgery. Three years later, her weight remains stable - now that's worth celebrating!

Saturday, February 2

Russell Brand talking to Jon Snow on Channel 4 yesterday. Extraordinary that it "plopped" into prime time UK news viewing. Extraordinary and very powerful. Here's to the power of connecting and connection ;)

The marinade was easy to make before work and I left the chicken pieces taking on the flavour in the fridge. As it happened, the traffic got me and the kids were home first. They threaded the meat onto kebabs and boiled some basmati rice for their supper. Mike and I ate the grilled chicken meat (although not much left) (!), folded into the dark purple cabbage leaves (the meat that is not us) (doh). Long day ;) Helped along by good food and an early night.

Looking for something?

Paleo Twitter

Mike: The Knowledge (Oliver)

paleo...works!

Why We (Really) Get Fat!

Take a look at this little gem explaining a key fundamental fact of which most of you will be unaware. That is the truth about why we really get fat.

Eatwell Plate

Healthy eating? Sadly large parts of the NHS eatwell plate are anything but.

State Of The Nation

Despite official advice, things like the Change 4 Life scheme,eatwell plate and NHS guidelines. Obesity in the UK is on the increase along with diseases like Diabetes at epidemic proportions.

Why is this? Is there a solution?

Standard advice is to eat less and exercise more. Can this be right? Well it's not worked to date so what do you think. Not just here in the UK either, globally the advice is much the same and yet present figures show we are at pandemic levels around the world.